This is a historic week for the medical profession as the British Medical Association (BMA) ballots doctors on industrial action against planned reforms to the NHS pension scheme, which will result in NHS staff working longer and paying more into their pensions. These reforms have not been negotiated, nor have they been agreed. They are being imposed upon NHS workers and the Government will not enter into negotiations. The Treasury says that public sector pensions are now unaffordable and in need of significant reform. Yet the NHS pension scheme has been shown to be affordable and sustainable for the future.
Reformed in 2008, far from being in deficit it provides a positive cashflow to the Treasury of around £2 billion a year. In 2008, the BMA agreed to a tiered contribution scheme where those who earned more paid more in contributions. We also agreed to an increase in the normal retirement age to 65 – and, perhaps most importantly, we agreed a cost-sharing arrangement where any future cost increases in the scheme would be met by pension scheme members, not by the NHS or the taxpayer.
These increases are nothing to do with the “improvement” of the NHS pension, but are a tax on public sector workers to fund the deficit of the Treasury, caused by mismanagement of the banking industry.
That doctors are considering industrial action is a reflection of just how angry they are at these reforms – and the argument is with the Government, not with patients. To that end, the form of industrial action we are proposing is based on an overriding commitment to patient safety. All emergency care or other care urgently needed would be provided, with doctors attending their place of work as usual. If someone urgently needed care, it would be provided. However, services that could safely be postponed would not be undertaken on the day. In hospitals, this would mean that some non-urgent procedures and outpatient appointments are postponed. GP surgeries would not offer advance-booked appointments, but would be open and fully staffed so that they could see patients in need of urgent attention who turn up on the day.
Industrial action by doctors has always been a last resort. The Government, however, has left them no option other than to proceed with the first ballot of the profession since the 1970s.
Source
Reformed in 2008, far from being in deficit it provides a positive cashflow to the Treasury of around £2 billion a year. In 2008, the BMA agreed to a tiered contribution scheme where those who earned more paid more in contributions. We also agreed to an increase in the normal retirement age to 65 – and, perhaps most importantly, we agreed a cost-sharing arrangement where any future cost increases in the scheme would be met by pension scheme members, not by the NHS or the taxpayer.
These increases are nothing to do with the “improvement” of the NHS pension, but are a tax on public sector workers to fund the deficit of the Treasury, caused by mismanagement of the banking industry.
That doctors are considering industrial action is a reflection of just how angry they are at these reforms – and the argument is with the Government, not with patients. To that end, the form of industrial action we are proposing is based on an overriding commitment to patient safety. All emergency care or other care urgently needed would be provided, with doctors attending their place of work as usual. If someone urgently needed care, it would be provided. However, services that could safely be postponed would not be undertaken on the day. In hospitals, this would mean that some non-urgent procedures and outpatient appointments are postponed. GP surgeries would not offer advance-booked appointments, but would be open and fully staffed so that they could see patients in need of urgent attention who turn up on the day.
Industrial action by doctors has always been a last resort. The Government, however, has left them no option other than to proceed with the first ballot of the profession since the 1970s.
Source
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